Zune
debuts in Canada as a much improved iPod competitor
by
Alan Zisman (c) 2008 First published in
Business
in Vancouver July 8-14, 2008; issue 976
High Tech Office column
In preparation for my own
travels, this column has lately been looking at stuff that’s small and
portable, designed to be easily toted about. Among the most commonplace
small gadgets are music players. The category is dominated by Apple’s
iPod, which accounts for more than 70% of sales.
But the iPod’s
dominance hasn’t meant that competition is nonexistent. Players from
Creative, SanDisk, Sony and more are trying to gain market share at the
iPod’s expense by offering more features, Windows media file format
compatibility and (perhaps) a bit of a price break. Newly available in
the Canadian market is Microsoft’s Zune line of players, launched
locally in mid-June.
As with Apple’s iPhone, Canadians were left
out of the product release about a year and a half ago. Unlike the
iPhone, however, Zune 1.0 received less than a rave response from both
reviewers and consumers, building a modest market share of about 3% or
so, more at the expense of other iPod competitors than from Apple.
The
new Zune product lineup, however, deserves better. New models, new
colours, new styling and new software make this a more potent
competitor to Apple’s powerhouse. Where the original release included
only hard drive-based models (similar to the larger iPod Classics), the
new lineup has added smaller, less expensive flash memory models to
compete with Apple’s popular iPod Nanos. And while Zune 1.0 came in
colours like a decidedly unsexy dark brown, the new models are much
more stylish. They offer options of bright red or black (and a pink
option on the smaller flash memory models only).
The various
Zune models carry pretty much the same pricing as iPods with the same
size storage: $250 for the 80 gigabyte hard drive model and $140 and
$190 for the smaller four-gigabyte and eight-gigabyte flash memory
models. (No Zunes compete with Apple’s 160-gigabyte high capacity model
or with the iPhone-like iPod Touch series.)
Compared with its
iPod Classic counterpart, the 80-gigabyte Zune offers a much larger
colour screen, better quality headphones, a built-in FM radio tuner and
WiFi sync. The latter feature lets users effortlessly connect their
Zune to their computer to update music and more. (Unlike the WiFi in
the iPod Touch, it can’t be used to browse the Web.) The WiFi allows
Zune users to share songs with one another, though this feature will be
less useful until there’s a critical mass of Zune owners.
While
Apple has graced its players with shiny metal backs, the Zune has a
more practical scratch-free matte surface. Zune purchasers can
customize the back with etched-on text and art. Microsoft has added
work from six Canadian artists including Meomi (Vicki Wong &
Michael Murphy), designers of the 2010 Olympics mascots, to the Zune
Originals list.
The software built into the new Zune models is
colourful and easy to navigate and use, while offering all the features
users expect in a media player. The Zune supports Windows Media and MP3
file formats, but not the copy-protected file formats from Apple’s
iTunes Music Store.
Microsoft has updated its online Zune
Marketplace, to try to compete better with iTunes, but due to
unresolved licensing issues, the Marketplace is not yet available to
Canadian customers.
Microsoft hasn’t done as good a job putting
its smaller models up against their iPod equivalents; while these Zunes
also boast the FM tuner and WiFi features that the iPod Nanos lack, the
baby Zunes lack the big screen and superior earbuds of their larger
siblings.
The Zune models now available in Canada are attractive
and capable media players, offering more features for the money than
comparable Apple iPods – at least if you’re running Windows; there’s no
Zune support for non-Windows computers. As other iPod competitors have
discovered, though, a good product with more features may not be enough
to shake Apple’s media-player dominance.
By the way, in BIV
issue 973, I noted that the popular Pure Digital Flip pocket camcorder
was not being sold in Canada; its Flip Video Ultra is now locally
available for $160. •